Shlomo Ben-Ami, Eswar Prasad, and more for PS Read More

Trotsky: A Biography, by Robert Service; Exile, Statelessness, and Migration, by Seyla Benhabib; and more The PS Say More Newsletter | [View this message in a web browser]( [PS Read More]( Welcome to PS Read More, a bi-weekly feature dedicated to enriching your bookshelf, with Project Syndicate contributors' help. In this week's edition, we share recommendations from Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister who is now Vice President of the Toledo International Center for Peace. We also highlight a work by Cornell University's Eswar Prasad. And don't miss suggestions from Sami Mahroum, a professor at the Free University of Brussels, and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. Shlomo Ben-Ami Recommends... Statelessness, and Migration: Playing Chess with History from Hannah Arendt to Isaiah Berlin]( By Seyla Benhabib This is a fascinating study of how Jewish statelessness and migration forged a class of Jewish intellectuals who became major shapers of modern thought. These figures did not necessarily self-identify as Jewish; some could be defined as “non-Jewish Jews” (an expression coined by the historian Isaac Deutscher). Yet they were highly preoccupied with the Jewish question. In traversing the work of these thinkers, Benhabib does not shy away from the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Her chapter on Judith Butler’s harsh critique of Zionism and support for Jewish-Arab cohabitation is an illuminating study of the contradictions of left-wing Jews’ attitudes toward the conflict. The book also offers an original perspective on Hannah Arendt’s controversial treatment of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem. [Walther Rathenau: The Life of Weimar’s Fallen Statesman]( By Shulamit Volkov This is a concise yet enlightening biography of a German-Jewish industrialist and statesman who played a major role in organizing German industry during World War I and briefly served as foreign minister during the ill-fated Weimar Republic. Rathenau’s assassination by a right-wing group in June 1922 highlighted the challenge of being a Jewish statesman amid rising German anti-Semitism. Rathenau’s one-sided love affair with Germany was the tragedy of all German Jews of this era; nothing could supersede their otherness. A master of her craft, Volkov offers a truly breathtaking glimpse into the brilliant and complex mind of a man who was torn between his Jewishness and his patriotic attachment to Germany. There are, however, crossroads in Rathenau’s life where one wonders whether Volkov hasn’t given excessive weight to his Jewishness in her effort to understand his intellectual agony and eventual demise. [Trotsky: A Biography]( By Robert Service Having read Deutscher’s exceedingly adulatory three-volume biography of Trotsky years ago, I have finally had my trust in the subject restored. Service’s book is a masterpiece of critical and overwhelmingly documented scholarship. Great leaders – Trotsky was a central figure in the Soviet revolution and the architect of the Bolsheviks’ victory in the civil war – are never infallible. But in Trotsky’s case, character flaws, intellectual arrogance, and indifference to political conditions were his downfall. In his struggle for leadership against Stalin – an unscrupulous master politician who knew exactly how to control a party machine – he didn’t stand a chance. In essence, Service’s narrative bridges the gap between Trotsky’s extraordinary intellect, oratorical talent, and organizational skills and his exceedingly poor political judgment. It turns out that Trotsky’s self-imposed inhibitions, rooted in his Jewishness, played a considerable part in his downfall. In Ben-Ami's recent [Say More interview]( he highlighted the lessons countries like China and Iran are drawing from Vladimir Putin’s aggression, offered advice to Ukrainian peace negotiators, considered the wisdom of Finland and Sweden's NATO membership, and more. [Click here to read](. By a PS Contributor [The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance]( By [Eswar Prasad]( Prasad says: "I wrote this book to show how new financial technologies – from cryptocurrencies to blockchain-based finance – could affect financial markets and institutions, central banking, and the international monetary system. I argue that the demise of physical currency (cash) is imminent, and that domestic and international payment systems are undergoing positive disruption that will result in lower costs and greater efficiency. I also point out that the advent of central-bank digital currencies will bring significant benefits, such as broader financial inclusion, but also threatens to undermine commercial banking and any remaining vestiges of privacy in financial transactions." Check out Prasad's recent [Say More interview]( in which he assesses challenges to the US dollar’s global preeminence, explains how cryptocurrencies could hurt Russia during the Ukraine war, highlights emerging blockchain-based financial products, and more. [Click here to read](. More Contributor Recommendations From Sami Mahroum: [The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation]( By Carl Benedikt Frey I was hugely impressed by this well-researched book, which provides a fascinating historical analysis of the interplay between government policy and technical change around the world. At the same time, it provides clues about how similar dynamics may shape the ongoing wave of automation, and what that might mean for wealth distribution within and among countries. [Read more](. --------------------------------------------------------------- From Mary Robinson: [The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move]( By Sonia Shah If the climate crisis is one of the greatest existential threats facing humanity, forced migration is one of its most problematic consequences. In this important book, Shah examines the reality of climate migration, both as a major challenge and as a potential solution to the broader climate crisis. [Read more](. [Subscribe to PS today for the latest on politics and more.]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. 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